Antarctic Circumpolar Current creates a boundary limiting the meridional dispersal of bacteria in the Southern Ocean
Abstract
Impact statement As the world's largest ocean current in terms of volume transport, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) significantly affects the movement of heat and water in the Southern Ocean. However, the impact of the ACC on the biogeographic distribution of marine bacteria is unknown. Here, by sampling and investigating the bacterial communities from surface seawater samples surrounding Antarctica and across the ACC region, we show that the ACC acts as a barrier limiting the dispersal of bacteria through it. This dispersal limitation, which reduces the communication between bacteria near Antarctica and foreign bacteria, will possibly be impacted by future climate change.
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Authors: Siqi Lin, 党燕茹, Yu Wang, Ninghua Liu, Chunyang Li, PingYi Li, Xiying Zhang, Xiulan Chen, Yu Xin, Li Liao, Andrew McMinn, Yuzhong Zhang, Qi‐Long Qin
Institutions: Ocean University of China, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, University of Tasmania, Polar Research Institute of China, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Shandong University, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology